


Shift Happens

by DepartedPuppy



Category: No Fandom
Genre: Short One Shot, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:42:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29118429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DepartedPuppy/pseuds/DepartedPuppy
Summary: Two friends just meant to have a photoshoot in the woods, but end up being attacked by a strange beast under a full moon





	Shift Happens

**Author's Note:**

> I know this isn't perfect, but my goal is to write something once every month in 2021 so this is my January free write. Constructive criticism appreciated(be nice!) in the comments.

“Lean your shoulders back further. And put your hand lower on your hip”  
The snap and flash of a camera sounded out through the woods. Amidst the misty trees and darkening blue hued atmosphere of dusk setting in, the only sounds that could be heard were that of the two girls. One, long and lean with strong facial features, long dark hair, and piercing blue eyes, was laid out on a mossy log wearing a light elegant dress complimenting the shadowy aura of her surroundings. At her was pointed a large camera, and behind that was a much softer face, warm eyes looking through the viewfinder and hands adorned with chipped nailpolish snapped a shot. Sitting down to a more comfortable position, the girl with the camera ran her hands through her curly red hair to push it back, and rested the camera on her lap to take a look at the photos she had taken so far. Freckles spotted her tanned face and body, and she wore a comfortable sweatshirt more suited to being in the woods than a dress.  
“How are they looking so far?” asked the model, shifting her body to sit upright on the log  
“Great, Mila” responded the photographer, eyes glued to the screen as she flipped through her shots so far “I just want to get a few more before it gets too dark, is that ok?”  
“Sure, I didn’t spend hours slaving over this dress to get a few pictures. Let's make it fast though, these woods are creeping me out”  
“Don’t worry, there’s nothing to be afraid of out here, plus I have my dads hunting knife if you need me to protect you” the photographer joked, patting a strap attatched to her belt containing a large knife. “I just need to adjust some settings on my camera, go ahead and lay back on the log again”  
Mila stretched her legs out and leaned on an arm to support herself as she flipped back and adjusted her hair. Looking around the forest, she didn’t know how her friend Audrey didn’t seem to be creeped out as well. It was dead silent apart from the occasional snap of a twig and bird call. The growing darkness around them also seemed to add to her nerves, but she knew she was just overreacting.  
“You ready soon, Audrey?” Mila asked  
Getting up on her knee and lifting the camera, Aubrey responded “yup, just keep looking pretty”  
Mila tried focusing on keeping a calm, collected demeanor for the camera as her friend moved around to snap more photos, but she couldn’t shake this uneasy feeling. The only light at this point was the rising moon and occasional camera flash. She hoped they could be finished soon. Audrey on the other hand, didn’t seem the least bit bothered by her surroundings. In her eyes, this was the perfect time to get some atmospheric photos. The lighting was dark and moody, just what she needed to match her friend's vibe. As she was taking the last few photos, she noticed something odd through the viewfinder. A large dark mass had appeared and started blocking out the moon's light, growing bigger behind Mila. She moved her gaze above her camera, mouth quickly turning agape in horror and eyes opening wide.  
“Audrey? What is it?” Mila said worriedly, sitting upright to give her friend a concerned look. She matched her friend's gaze, turning to look behind her and letting out a terrified scream as she jumped up to stumble backward. The large mass Audrey had noticed had turned out to be some sort of large, disfigured wolf, who had somehow managed to silently prowl up on them. Both of the girls stared at the beast for a moment, Mila backing away with her hands covering her mouth and Audrey slowly setting down her camera and putting her hand over her belt as she knelt still. The huge wolf had a thick yet sleek, black coat, and looked sickly. The girls couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it, but it looked almost mangled or somehow not completely wolf. It was silent, eyes locked on Mila, slowly prowling closer as it began to bear its teeth and let out a low guttural growl. Audrey hoped she wouldn’t have to fight, but it might be too late. Even if she tried to fight it, what match was she with just a knife? The best she could hope for was that Mila kept trying to retreat and not move too fast. The moon shone down on the creature's slick coat, growing closer to Mila, who was trembling at this point, heart pounding through her whole body. She didn’t know what to do, she knew she couldn’t run away but what other option did she have? Mila turned her head slightly towards Audrey, but shifting her gaze from the wolf turned out to be a mistake  
The next minute seemed to simultaneously go in slow motion and in the blink of an eye. As Mila looked towards and locked eyes with Audrey, the wolf took this as its time to attack. Audrey called out as the wolf lunged over the log, tackling and pinning Mila to the ground. Milas attention was snapped back to the creature as she was shoved backward, feeling the heavy weight pin her down. She wailed out and shoved her fists in the wolf's face and neck to only slightly push back the drooling, snapping maws. Meanwhile, Audrey had snapped out of her daze and was fumbling at her belt to take out her knife. In a fit of adrenaline, she picked herself up and sprinted towards the beast, throwing herself at it and grabbing fistfulls of its fur. The wolf hardly noticed her, trying to shove her off as it continued trying to sink its teeth into Mila. Audrey swung her arm back and drove the knife into its shoulder blade at full force as both her and the wolf yelled out. The wolf then swung back with enough force to throw Audrey of its back hard into the log, headfirst. Her body went limp as she blacked out, Mila squealing in fear. The knife still stuck in the back of the beast, who turned back over Mila. The last thing she remembered was the huge creature lunging at her throat.  
~  
Audrey slowly opened her eyes to the cold, hard, mossy forest floor. She shuddered and turned her head around, trying to reconnect to her surroundings. It was still night, and was quiet again. Her vision was dizzy and disoriented, but she slowly took hold of herself. A twitching lump laid a few feet away from her feet, and her body immediately reacted, trying to stumble up and crawl over. As soon as she made it over, her heart sank and she let out a cry of fear from her chest as she cupped her mouth. Mila laid there, at least she thought it was Mila, in a fetal position, trembling as she gripped herself, one hand over her throat. She was soaked in blood, dress torn and soiled, eyes glazed over. How long had she been like this? What was wrong with her friend? She slowly reached out a trembling arm, but was too scared to touch her.  
“Mila? Please talk to me” Her voice was shaking almost as much as she was physically  
Mila reared her head around to lock eyes with Audrey  
“Somethings wrong Audrey, I think the wolf ran away, I don’t feel right, I-” Her voice was raspy as she coughed up blood onto the ground  
“Don't push yourself, I’m gonna, uh, try to call an ambulance” She was terrified, and didn’t want to take her eyes off Mila but needed to find her phone. It must have been near her camera in her bag she brought. She scuttered over, heart pounding, trying to locate her phone.  
Meanwhile, Mila didn’t know what was wrong with her, and was just trying to focus on not bleeding out. She should have died, but after the wolf had torn her up, it had just seemed to run away without much intent. She had been laying here, painfully trying to do something, anything, but couldn’t muster up the strength to move. Aside from the pain of her wounds, she had suddenly started experiencing random waves of muscle cramps throughout her body, which were only getting worse.  
“Audrey” Mila groaned  
“Im sorry, I know, I can't find my phone” she sobbed, crawling around her scattered belongings  
“Audrey, please-” she let out a blood curdling scream as her full body cramps suddenly worsened as she suddenly started feeling a painful, strange, new feeling. Her bones had started to ache, and skin began to itch. Her eyes shifted up and down her body, seeing her body begin to ever so slowly inhumanly stretch, grow, move in ways that she was sure weren’t possible. The pain was terrible that tears began to develop in the corners of her eyes. She breathed heavily as her body began to transform into something else. She rolled over onto her stomach, legs mutating, tailbone lengthening, hands and nails remodeling, all while her head was pounding and pulse racing. Mila tried to shout out to her friend for help, but ended up just letting out a strange half wail, half animalistic howl. She could feel her canines and other teeth growing, causing her gums and jaw to burn and ache. Audrey turned around to see Mila hunched over, human form changing into something darker, larger, something more like what attacked them earlier that night. She was left speechless as she stood there, watching her grow thick, black fur all over her body, tearing out of her dress as she grew bigger, human ears shifting into downturned almost canidae ears, hands to large almost paws, and backside sprouting a tail. It was not very fast, Mila must have been exhausted, Audrey thought. But as soon as the thought it couldn’t go on any longer, Audrey paused. For a few seconds she walked forward, breathing heavy, in her new form. It really was something else, she was almost completely wolf. Standing on all fours but still looking uncomfortably human, or at least most definitely not full wolf, she looked tired. And scared. She had the same piercing blue eyes as before, but Audrey did not know what could have been going on through her mind right now. And with that, Mila wobbled and began to collapse, Audrey running over to try and catch her friend, underestimating how large she now was. Mila fell directly onto Audrey, pinning her lower half onto the ground. Unsure of how to react, all she could do was let out a sigh, and started laughing, which turned into a cry. She held her friend's changed head in her hands, running them through the thick black fur. She moved a hand down to her chest to make sure there was a heartbeat, and was relieved to find that Milas heart rate was coming down to something normal, unlike everything else going on. She continued to run her hands over her, trying to take in Milas new form and find any injuries. It didn’t seem real, and Audrey didn’t know what to do. She was sure Mila must have been exhausted, and so was she. They both needed the rest, but she didn’t want to fall asleep. What if someone found them?... She realized how absurd that would be, nobody else had come to them when they were screaming, trying to fight off the wolf earlier. She took off her now dirty hoodie she was wearing and draped it over Mila. Audrey fell back, and took a deep breath, looking at the night sky through the tall trees. Sure enough, there was a full moon. She had purposefully chosen tonight because it was supposed to be a supermoon. And now her friend is a werewolf. Werewolf stuff went away once the sun rose, right? Was this gonna be a recurring thing now? She asked herself these questions, dozing off under the night sky under the weight of her friend.  
~  
The sounds of birds' songs rang throughout the forest, and Audrey slowlyopened her eyes once more. Pale light softened the woods previously threatening aura. Air fresh and warm, dew on the mossy floor. She sat herself up, focusing her gaze around her then down to Mila, still laying on her lap, breathing softly. She was completely back to normal. Well, she was still very much bloody, beaten, and bruised, but she looked human again. She placed her hands gently on Mila’s shoulder and shook.  
“Hey, can you uh, wake up?”  
Mila woke up gently at first, but then shot upright and started looking around alertly, then down at herself. She felt herself up and down, looking towards Audrey.  
“What.. Happened last night?” Her voice was raspy and hoarse, and she pulled Audreys sweatshirt closer to her body “I’m freezing”  
“Well I mean, How much do you remember?” she replied  
“I don’t know. I mean I remember after the wolf attacked me, I started.. Changing, I think? That sounds so stupid, did this really happen?”  
“I think so. How do you feel?”  
“Sore. Everything hurts, I think I need to go to the hospital” Mila felt her neck. It was still crusted in blood, but it had somehow started healing over already, as if it wasn’t a fatal attack. “I don’t know how I’m not dead. I don’t know what to tell the doctors”  
The girls sat there for a moment, thinking over their next move and what would happen after this. It was hard for either of them to think, as if they couldn’t snap out of a daze.  
“I guess that it was just a wolf attack” Audrey rubbed the back of her neck “I guess we shouldn’t wait much longer though, I have some blankets in the car you can use to, er, cover up” she said, avoiding looking anywhere near her body out of embarrassment.  
Blushing, Mila pulled the sweatshirt closer to her body and pulled herself off Audrey, getting up and moving around slowly. Audrey stood upright and stretched out, she had formed a bruise on the back of her head where she was thrown onto the log. Both of them were aching, bloody, and messy, and just wanted to get home as soon as they could as they collected their things scattered around the forest floor.  
Mila picked up her dress, “I worked so hard on this, and for what?”  
“Don’t say that, I’m sure my photos will still turn out”  
Hearing this made the part of Milas heart looking for some good news warm.  
They steadily made their way back to the car, and Audrey started it up.  
“I never want to come back to these woods again”  
“Me either”  
~  
They somehow made it safely to the nearest hospital, despite not being able to kick that dazed fuzzy feeling no matter how bright the fluorescent lights seemed to be shining down on them. Mila was able to get wheeled away relatively quickly, and Audrey found a chair in the waiting room and plopped herself down, setting her backpack down on her lap. She was the only one in the room and she was grateful for that, she barely had the energy to talk to anyone, let alone doctors right now. She pulled out her camera, and started flicking through the photos from last night. It seemed like an eternity ago, but she was happy to see that many of the photos turned out beautifully so far, and she knew Mila would be happy with them. At least her dress would be preserved this way. As she was flicking towards the end of her camera roll, she got to the last few. There was the shadow. Right behind Mila, there was the werewolf. It felt odd, looking back at it like this. Milas unknowing, relaxed figure silhouetted by the wolf, whose only defining characteristic were its eyes that the moon's light shone off of. The doors of the ER broke Audrey’s focus off the screen as a man was quickly wheeled through the waiting area . She couldn’t get a good look at him, but her heart started racing as soon as she saw him leave. He looked pale as a ghost, as if he had lost lots of blood, and sat leaning upright, head drooping forward, torso exposed and blanket draped over his lower half. One of his hands was reached over his shoulder and as he was wheeled past Audrey, she caught a glimpse of her dads hunting knife in his back.


End file.
